The Last Shred Of Hope
by Rittie
Summary: When Yuma expresses his concerns on Earth's safety during their absence, Rio voluntares to go back and check out the situation under the condition that she would take somebody with her. What she finds enrages her as the queen has to fight again. For their world and, this time, all the dimensions too. RioxKaito/Diamondshipping, friendly RioxYuya and hateful RioxSora later on.
1. Prologue

**Okay, this is my new Rio-centric story. It will also be a ZEXAL/Arc-V crossover story. Meaning it probably won't get much love but meh... anyways, one of my headcanons is that Rio would still have her Barian powers in a different dimension to her own, so if you don't like that, you can leave. She won't be using them that much, after all. Second, the pairing of this story. It will determinate which person will be going with Rio to the Standard dimension to fight alongside the Lancers. The pairings are as follows:**

 **HolyIceshipping (Durbe x Rio)**

 **Accidentshipping (IV x Rio)**

 **Gorgonicshipping (Vector x Rio)**

 **Diamondshipping (Kaito x Rio)**

 **There will be no IceBait because Yuma will be staying behind to deal with the threat (Rio is basically being sent back along with the chosen person to check on Earth and if anything happened during their absence) or SnowBird (for the same reasons and I don't ship yuri) so basically it's just the pairings above that I'm comfortable with.**

 **Long author's note aside, I hope you enjoy this fic, along with this rather short prologue ...**

 _The Ice Queen's Return_

 _Prologue_

"Guys." Yuma suddenly spoke up, causing everyone to look at him and stop doing whatever they had been doing. "I was thinking..."

"I hope you didn't hurt yourself..." Shark muttered under his breath, causing all the former Barian Emperors and the rest of the group to laugh.

"Hahaha, ha! Very funny, Shark." the younger boy muttered. "Anyways, I was wondering about what was going on back on Earth..."

"Well we are all gone for now so there shouldn't be any huge problems." IV spoke up from his seat in-between his brothers and father, as they all worked on some counter-attack plans.

"But how are we supposed to know?" Yuma countered. "Somebody could invade while we are away thinking that Earth was now an easy target!"

"Yuma, you really need to tone down with those novels of yours..." Kotori sighed under her breath, causing her friend to open his mouth angrily but was stopped when the most unexpected person spoke up.

"I actually agree with Yuma. I'd say that I should go back and check out the situation."

Shark turned to slowly stare at his sister.

"Rio, if you think that I will let you leave by yourself, for even a minute, you'd be _deadly_ wrong. Besides, we need you here..."

"Mo! Ani, you know that's not true." Rio huffed. "The threat is being dealt with and we really shouldn't have left Earth so defenceless ... so, would it make you feel better if somebody went back with me? I wouldn't be going by myself." she rolled her eyes at his overprotectiveness.

"Rio..." Shark started, shocked by her behaviour towards him.

"I'd have to agree with Merag-sama, Nasch." Durbe spoke up, pushing his glasses up. "Earth needs to be protected too... as such, we should make a vote on who goes back with Merag-sama."

"This is hilarious..." IV muttered to his brothers as their father just sighed and went back to his plans, Kaito in some corner, muttering something to Vector who was listening carefully.

"Alright, I give up." Shark glared at IV for his comment. "But only under the condition that somebody goes back with you."

"Yes, ani..." Rio had to roll her eyes again as Yuma spoke up again, looking like he had another idea.

"But how would Shark-imoto and whoever else go back? Is there like a portal to Earth?" he looked at Astral in question.

"Of course." the blue being replied. "How do you think we got here from Earth?"

"Oh..." once again, Yuma had caused everyone to laugh. "Well, sorry for forgetting!" he pouted.

"Whatever, let's vote..." Shark stated loudly, his eyes raking through the room before they settled on someone. "You will be going with Rio."

His sister turned around in that general direction and saw that her 'partner' for this 'mission' was...

 **So be sure to vote! Couple with most votes will be the winner, clearly xD**

 **Honestly, I'd be happy if anyone reads this at all but whatever couple is picked will be the couple for this fic, so chose wisely :)**

 **Also, this title is not set so be sure to leave better fic names with your over-all review since my brain hates me right now...**

 **And yes, what Shark means by 'voting' basically translates to him (figuratively) picking out the companion :P xD**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	2. Kaito's Grief

**The votes are in! .. not so shocking result I'd say. As follows:**

 **Diamond - 7 (last time that I counted)**

 **Gorgonic - 3**

 **Accident - 1**

 **HolyIce - 0**

 **Damn people really don't like HolyIce xD As such, this crossover fic will be Diamondshipping aka Kaito x Rio. I'm sorry if you voted otherwise and... I will try and make the couple believable. I hope that I will succeed, lets go with that :/**

 **Now, I'm pretty sure that Faker/Haruto didn't go with them, so if they did, take this as an even bigger headcanon/AU. Cheers!**

 **Enjoy?**

 _Kaito's Grief_

A couple of minutes later, Rio and her companion were flying through the network back to Earth.

She still couldn't believe that her brother had picked Tenjo Kaito, out of all the people that were there with them, but she presumed that he trusted him the most out of all the possible males that could have gone with her. Personally, she didn't really mind Kaito. Sure, they barely ever talked (even after arriving in the Astral World for the first time) ... really, all they did was stand next to each other at times and they never really had a bond to worry about or depend on. Throwing him a sideways look, Rio saw that he was clearly deep in thought over something.

"Kaito-san?" she questioned.

Meanwhile, Kaito himself was wondering why Ryoga had chosen him out of all the males that Rio knew better (and who knew her better), yet his worry lay in his father and younger brother. If the world was really in danger (like Yuma had worried) there was a possibility that something could have happened to them. When Rio spoke up, he looked at her in slight surprise.

"Yes?"

"Are you alright? You've been quiet..." she wondered, uncertain of whatever that was normal or not. It's not like Ryoga had given her a Tenjo Kaito handbook. Now she was resenting him for not doing so.

"I'm fine." he told her simply, facing forward again as he began to see the outlines of his familiar homeland. "We are nearly there..."

Rio looked in that general direction too and nodded.

"That we are."

 **\- Line Break -**

Whatever they had expected when they arrived was certainly not what they found.

Instead of the usual bright and happy colours of Heartland, they were met with carnage and destruction. Rio looked around, obvious sadness and some guilt on her face, as she stared at some flames that were burning.

"Heartland... is completely... demolished..." she whispered and turned to speak to Kaito, only to notice that he wasn't beside her anymore. Blinking, the former Empress started to walk forward when she noticed him kneeling near what used to be Heartland Tower, holding what looked like two cards in his hands.

"Kaito-san?" she whispered, kneeling beside him. "What...?"

"They are gone..." he muttered, seemingly mostly to himself, clutching the cards. Confused, Rio looked at them and gasped...

"Impossible. Are they...?"

Kaito didn't answer as he stared at the cards. The cards which held the pictures (and souls, she presumed) of his father and little brother, Haruto. She found herself putting her hand on his back, trying to console him as she watched, stunned, as tears began to trickle down his cheeks.

"Kaito-san..."

"Who are you two?" a gruff, almost annoyed, voice growled and Rio whipped around, coming face-to-face with a guy (a teenager at best) with deadly, cold golden eyes and dark, ocean blue hair.

She stood up, ready to defend the still grieving Kaito when...

"Stop it, Shun, they are clearly not from the Fusion Dimension. Why would one of them cry over the loss of Dr. Faker and Haruto Tenjo?"

Rio looked around for the voice and another boy, this one obviously younger, with dark grey eyes and black hair with purple bangs.

"Welcome to Heartland you two... or should I say, what remains of it?"

 **Hope you liked this one! Once again sorry to everyone who didn't vote for Diamond but seeing how oddly popular it is, I honestly didn't expect anything different :/**

 **Anyways, I presume that you guess can guess who the 'younger boy' is? xD**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	3. The Resistance? The Mysterious Boys!

**So who is ready for the next chapter? :D**

 **First, thanks to everyone who reviewed (it means a lot :) ) and now, as most of you know, I'm not a huge fan of Diamond. But even so, I want to make it work. Everyone is free to give me pointers!**

 _The Resistance? The Mysterious Boys Appear!_

Shun and Yuto (as the younger boy had introduced himself) began to march them back to the HQ of their secret group (bent on fighting the invaders and any other threats), Rio was walking a bit behind them and beside Kaito, who spent the whole way so far staring at the two cards which held the souls of his family.

"Kaito..." she began but he shook his head, indicating that he didn't feel like talking.

She couldn't really blame him - Ryoga did tell her about Kaito's Numbers Hunter days, including when he had stolen her brother's soul - and thought that maybe he was still feeling guilty over that, that what happened to his family was somehow divine punishment finally bestowed upon him. Rio didn't think so, not after everything he did to make amends with himself mostly, but knew that he wouldn't take well to that if she tried to speak about it so she decided to stay silent as they reached a run-down, old building at the edge of what used to be Heartland and she realized with horror that it was, in fact, her family's mansion (the one they had all forgotten about after leaving for the Astral World) but also that she wasn't mad. If their old home could help their group, she didn't mind and she knew Ryoga wouldn't have minded either.

"Ehm... excuse me... Shun was ..."

"Shun!" an unknown girl ran towards him, worry clear in her apple-green eyes. "Ruri went missing! She went out for provisions hours ago and still isn't back!"

"What?" the older boy in the tranch coat snapped, worry reflecting in his hawk-like eyes as he and Yuto (she was surprised that she still remembered their names somehow) quickly began to walk away, clearing forgetting about the two of them.

"... it." Rio sighed, feeling the need to finish her sentence.

"I'm sorry about this." the girl spoke, clearly deeming them allies if the duo had already brought them here. "Ruri is Shun's younger sister and Yuto's friend so..."

"Understandable." Kaito finally spoke up as he stashed away the two cards safely - he would find a way to bring them back - and looked at the girl. "I would be doing the same if I was in his situation."

"Can you tell us where she was seen last?" Rio interrupted, knowing that the girl would ask if Kaito had any siblings ... she felt it was still too early for that. "We would like to help." she added, knowing that both she and the Galaxy-Eyes master had their duel disks on them. The girl nodded and gave them the coordinations and before she knew it, the two of them were already gone.

 **\- ... -**

By the time they arrived at the scene, Shun looked crestfallen (did something happen to Ruri?) and Yuto was dueling a boy on a motorcycle and in a white suit.

"What happened?" Kaito asked at once, his somewhat cold eyes glaring up at the motorcycle boy (as he was on one of the higher buildings which was the back of her former school, she realized with some shock) who was busily chanting something too low for her to hear. "What is he summoning?"

"He is summoning something?" Rio looked worried at once and looked back at Yuto, realizing that he had a dark-looking dragon in front of him (his ace maybe?) and a determinated expression on his face.

"I don't care about who you are, just tell me why you took Ruri!" he shouted, his usually passive face suddenly aggressive.

"I don't know any Ruri's! You tell me why you took Rin!" the motorcycle boy yelled back and Rio wondered why she felt like they were going nowhere. Yuto firmly said that he knew no Rin's either as she stepped forward, trying to break up the fight she knew was coming when she froze, feeling an omnious presence in the alley to her left. Dashing into the dark hallway (whilst ignoring Kaito's surprised and somewhat worried shout), she came across a dead end. Taking a turn to the left, Rio saw a cloaked figure vanishing on the other end's right corner and just as she got there, she saw a menacing grin and then nothing but a bright purple flash.

"RIO!"

 **I will leave you guessing here :D**

 **Thanks for reading!**


End file.
